“I'm as free as I allow myself to be.” — Frida

Ana Min is a love child born at the moment. To Frida, her latest album is priceless. In this life of ours, everyone has once asked themselves the question of who they are. The odyssey of individuality and life’s meaning is often followed with deconstruction and rebirth. Having gone through the process for more than once across decades, Frida shares her wisdom.

“I had believed that to know myself meant that I should be able to describe who I truly was with clear and simple words,” she recalled. “After years of deconstruction and reshuffling of all I thought I was, I realised the trap in this quest: every attribute I give myself quickly becomes a prison.” Letting go and allowing the free flow of everything that exist within her, consciously and subconsciously to simply be as they are— that’s the heart space and mind space of Ana Min. For once, the question of what it means to be free doesn’t need an answer. There’s no need for definition.

Releasing itself from the constraint of genres, harmonies, dissonance, resonances and everything within our known structure, Frida and band began to explore and experience sounds and music in a new way. What would music sound like to be truly free?

The spirited Ana Min lays parallel to life itself, rising up to the spiritual and philosophical realm. Earthy instruments, drawing the familiar sounds from our humble daily life, represents a fusion of culture in its most vibrant way. Different musical backgrounds and cultural depth emotively respond to her storytelling while the phantom of rhythm and dances find themselves being naturally a part of the groove.

Ana Min doesn’t stray far from where its roots and origins. It embraces the moment of now, past and future, gazes beyond the sky, envisioning the other side of the sea—full of imagination and possibilities. At the same time, it’s a reflection of every element that makes us who we are — as a part of nature, as a person in a culture, as an emotive, spiritual being, as a visionary, as a micro universe on its own. The list would go on and on.

In this interview, we chat with Frida about her genre-bending album and the rituals she goes through in preparation of music performance, and more.

Punk Head: “Ana Min” asks the question of “who I am,” and the sonics response/build on the quest. Can you tell us what stimulated the creation of this intense and expressive song?

Frida: The quest for true identity is a recurrent theme in arts, philosophy and all introspective practices, and it came into my life quite early, back when I was at school and discovered the almighty "know thyself" and the Oracle of Delphi. At that time, my perspective of knowledge was quite limited by intellectual attributes, and I had believed that to know myself meant that I should be able to describe who I truly was with clear and simple words.

After years of deconstruction and reshuffling of all I thought I were, I realized the trap in this quest: every attribute I give myself quickly becomes a prison, an expectation I have of myself, therefore standing in the way of me and my absolute freedom.

The last identity I was still unconsciously hooked to was that of the Dignified Warrior: chin up, straight back, and off to face adversity... Until I realized that, until I no longer identify with that archetype, I ll need to manifest wars and battles to justify my existence.

And that's when Felix Fivaz (drummer) sent me this magical tune. I knew it was time to break free from all those conditional identities, and activate my sense of self as an expansive channel that was born to accommodate Love and Freedom.

Punk Head: I really like the energy and the spiritual aspect of your music. When you sing/perform, do you have a special place that you go to?

Frida: Thank you for this question and for perceiving that energy in my songs and performances. It was indeed through my spiritual awakening that I walked into music making , and with each passing day, I become even more aware - and grateful - for the transformative power of Music 😍

And that's probably why I am so uncompromising in my preparation for a performance : I spend the day in a lot of silence and gratitude, making sure I'm deeply connected to my body and heart, and that the mind is rather still, only entertaining inspiring, empowering thoughts if any.

The musicians and I also stand in a circle and meditate together right before a performance, making sure we're all aware of the Oneness of our hearts and minds when fueled by Love.

Then we're off to the stage, where my first thought and intention always is: We are all far greater than we know, and tonight, we're gonna see some of that in action!
From there, I melt into the Now, feeling like my main role is to honor and serve the sacredness of the moment.

Punk Head: Can you tell us more about the collaborative process of making this record?

Frida: This album is the love child of the moment, and this for me is priceless. It came to be what it is today because all of us in it were there for the love: the love of music of course, but also the love for each other and for this incredible gift we knew we were lucky to have: making music born from and for the Now.

We had already recorded an album in a Live setting last year, Felix (drums), Florian (bass) and I, which gave us quite the foundation to venture into new melodic realms…. Enter Scarlett (piano) and Ramy (Qanun) and their distinctively soulful sounds, joined also by Patrik Abi Abdalla , great drummer/percussionist and the first musician I ever played with, and you get yourself quite the fertile playground for harmony, creativity, and enough madness for it to feel like home!

Punk Head: Is there any challenge you faced while making the album?

Frida: Not really 🤣😂

Of course we had many things to figure out, adapt to and find solutions for - especially given the originality of both the creative and recording processes - but I don't think we can call them challenges, given how they always felt like a new playground to explore together, a place where we could expand our creative expression and get to connect to each other on even deeper levels.

It's also a bit what stands at the core of my belief and practice: as long as we're having real fun, every new challenge feels like a new toy 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Punk Head: One big thing that you learned in the past year/from making the album?

Frida: I'm as free as I allow myself to be, and I'm ready for the fullness of me